I lament the loss of Trade Schools. When I was in HS boys either went to Trade School and learned Plumbing, Wood working, Welding, Machine shop, Electronics, etc or they prepped for college.
By the time my kids were in HS, they had eliminated all except Auto Body Shop. I guess it followed the exodus of manufacturing jobs that went overseas.
By the time my kids were in HS, they had eliminated all except Auto Body Shop. I guess it followed the exodus of manufacturing jobs that went overseas.
Yeah, I thought the same way...until I got my engineering degree and graduated with zero debt.
It allowed me to retire with a directed pension and choose my second job.
Not everyone should go to college. That's why I went to college after my enlistment in the military. I knew that I would have to pay for it, my parents were both high school dropouts.
When I was first discharged from the USMC, I was accepted into the Machinist Apprenticeship at a national laboratory. Four years later, I was a Journeyman Machinist. That apprenticeship made it easy to earn my BSME and allowed me to work a good job so I could pay my tuition and fees with the GI Bill and pay rent, food and utilities and a Jeep payment.
After I earned my engineering degree, I returned to the national lab as a Journeyman Machinist. My wife thought I was nuts taking a job for less pay then Intel Corp was paying me.
Three years later, all my former Intel coworker's were laid-off or transferred and I got a job at the national lab as an engineer.
It allowed me to work 31+ years, never heard the words lay-off. I'm retired from there with a directed pension, 401k and Roth IRA for the wife.
We didn't drive expensive cars, lived in a modest house that was paid off in 15 years. We didn't take expensive vacations, but when we left for vacations, the vacation was already paid for.
We also had a self-funded 529 college fund which paid for my son's room and board and fees.
Most of the people who had just graduated had an average student debt load of about $30k, and that's about what the starting salary for a new graduate engineer was in the late 1980s. I had zero debt and maxed out the 401K and never touched it.
A coworker and friend started as an apprentice at age 21. He never got married or had any kids. He worked at the lab until he was 50 years-old and retired with about $1,000,000 in his 401K, no mortgage debt, no vehicle debt, no student debt because he never got any formal education past high school.
WWI soldiers were settled there, 91% quit. "...7 months snow, two months rain and the remainder mosquitoes and black flies."
That's worse than here. I have 5 acres of woods next to 110 acres of long-term woods, a livable 3 bed 1.5 bath shack, two garages and a chicken shack, for 2/3 the price and 1/3rd the taxes (WTF??)
Sounds like cottage country 😛
Whatever you pay, times by 10x and be happy (in Muskoka, anyway)
For sale: 1533 LIVINGSTONE LAKE RD, Algonquin Highlands, Ontario P0A1E0 - X4852584 | REALTOR.ca
A "Cottage"!
Whatever you pay, times by 10x and be happy (in Muskoka, anyway)
For sale: 1533 LIVINGSTONE LAKE RD, Algonquin Highlands, Ontario P0A1E0 - X4852584 | REALTOR.ca
A "Cottage"!
Oh my yes! I work a lot with people in their 20s and they are way nicer, smarter and well informed than we ever were. I make a effort not to give them a hard time like our elders did us. No matter how silly some of the things they do or say are, I remember that crap we used to get. Why can't other boomers remember that and how insulting it was?
But basically the young ones today are much nicer than we ever were.
I've met a few younger, nice "kids".
But a lot of it has to do with upbringing and the quality of schooling.
And both of those things seemed to have taken a downslide over the decades.
But a lot of it has to do with upbringing and the quality of schooling.
And both of those things seemed to have taken a downslide over the decades.
I got in a big argument with a friends step father whose attitude was " I made my money I can spend it however I please. Even if it means driving an oil smoking behemoth that gets 12 MPG".This was 1970 and I was arguing that we would have severe environmental consequences in the future if we did not change.
I was 18 and argued that he owed the planet for what he earned. I made no impact on him.
I have been recycleing since 1976 when I went to Clemson. The local grocery store "Community Cash" had a cordoned off area with 50 gallon barrels for glass. Clear, Brown, Green.
Now days I only put one bag of trash in the bin for pick up each week.
I compost most vegetable matter that I don't eat.
My son has made fun of me for recycling tin cans, aluminium cans, plastic, etc. He sees my effort as minimal compared to the rest of the world.
We each make our choices.
I was 18 and argued that he owed the planet for what he earned. I made no impact on him.
I have been recycleing since 1976 when I went to Clemson. The local grocery store "Community Cash" had a cordoned off area with 50 gallon barrels for glass. Clear, Brown, Green.
Now days I only put one bag of trash in the bin for pick up each week.
I compost most vegetable matter that I don't eat.
My son has made fun of me for recycling tin cans, aluminium cans, plastic, etc. He sees my effort as minimal compared to the rest of the world.
We each make our choices.
This is more my speed (and budget!): For sale: 6160 TRAILL ROAD, Deka Lake / Sulphurous / Hathaway Lakes, British Columbia V0K1X0 - R2506136 | REALTOR.ca
And while that doing your part to recycle is ok, and I'm one who does, (mandatory in Phila) there's another side to that argument...
Consider the nature side of things - a volcano erupts and spews enough mess into the air to make half the country's cars emissions look like mere toys.
Mother Nature is in control far more than humans can ever be.
I don't get obsessed over most human doings, because we're all at the mercy of what the planet does.
Those so-called environmentalists starting trouble don't think about that when they argue about global warming, do they?
That's a beautiful a-frame 🙂
This is more in my price range though: For sale: 165 Rue St-Vincent, Amherst, Quebec J0T2L0 - 14872450 | REALTOR.ca
Or, for a little more money, you can buy stationnement in Montreal!
For sale: 3480 Rue Simpson, #B64, Montreal (Ville-Marie), Quebec H3G2N7 - 23538630 | REALTOR.ca
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I remember what it's like to be young. I think a lot of people don't.
The tone of society towards young people is different now. When I was young, we were The Enemy. We were long haired, pot smoking, Jimi Hendrix listening freaks. Now young people are preferred by employers, and even advertising skews heavily toward young people. I don't watch much TV, but my impression is that the only things they want to sell us old fartbutts are life insurance and Buicks. We're viewed as tech illiterate, clueless dinosaurs by The Establishment. But in my real world experience, that's not even remotely close to being true. However, most of my neighbors and associates are college professors and engineers; hardly representative of the demographic.
Hmmmm..... I wonder just who would be responsible for that?
That, is a complicated and complex question to answer......
It mostly involves human evolution through the generations, along with the "patterning" as a result of society's changing influences.
We're led to believe that smartphones are devices to make our lives better, simpler, more convenient.
In a way, that may be truthful, it has to prove some form of worthiness.
Back in the 1970's when handheld calculators became more popular, they allows our brains to rest, and let the machine do the work.
When remote controls came out as a convenience when watching TV, our azzes didn't leave the couch to change channels.
We became a "button pushing" world, less effort was required to do things.
These things and much more made society dumber and sloppier.
God forbid the once enjoyed "inconvenience" of removing an LP record from its sleeve, and having to load it onto a spindle, then manually flip the machine's start lever to start its cycle to play that LP....
Oh, and having to wait about 15 whole seconds for that machine to do its work and start playing the music!
It's just TOO much work.... too much time!.... so inconvenient! 😱
I feel that way about the automatic transmission, back up caneras, and the other "nanny assist" garbage found on most modern cars. Gone are the days of having skill to drive apparently. You don't even have to know how to parallel park these days, the car will do it for you.
My car has an normally aspirated inline 6, a 6 speed manual gearbox, and NO "iDrive"... It has real analog gauges, too 🙂
This is a combination they don't make anymore. Even a shitbox comes with satnav and an LCD screen for the cluster now.
My car has an normally aspirated inline 6, a 6 speed manual gearbox, and NO "iDrive"... It has real analog gauges, too 🙂
This is a combination they don't make anymore. Even a shitbox comes with satnav and an LCD screen for the cluster now.
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I have my children well trained on the 5 speed manual transmission. Do not need to worry about the car with automatic dying as much. Also they are easy on the clutch.
When has climate change NOT happened? In the '80s we were going to freeze. In the '90s we were going to bake.
The only constant in climate IS change. Now we call it "climate change" which can be anything. Young open minded
people haven't discovered all the balloney - YET.
G²